Obamas pressekreterare: Inte nytt med ”fake news”

During Barack Obama's campaign for president in 2008 and through his presidency, many conspiracy theories were circulated, falsely asserting that he was not a natural-born citizen of the United States and consequently, under Article Two of the U.S. Constitution, that he was ineligible to be President of the United States. Theories alleged that Obama's published birth certificate was a forgery—that his actual birthplace was not Hawaii but Kenya. Other theories alleged that Obama became a citizen of Indonesia in childhood, thereby losing his U.S. citizenship. Still others claimed that Obama was not a natural-born U.S. citizen because he was born a dual citizen (British and American). A number of political commentators have characterized these various claims as a racist reaction to Obama's status as the first African American President of the United States. Such claims were promoted by fringe theorists ("birthers"), some of whom sought court rulings either declaring Obama ineligible to take office, or granting access to various documents which they claimed would evidence such ineligibility; none of these efforts were successful. Some political opponents, especially in the Republican Party, have expressed skepticism about Obama's citizenship or been unwilling to acknowledge it; some have proposed legislation which would require presidential candidates to provide proof of eligibility. Expressed belief in such theories has persisted despite Obama's pre-election release of his official Hawaiian birth certificate in 2008; confirmation, based on the original documents, by the Hawaii Department of Health; the April 2011 release of a certified copy of Obama's original Certificate of Live Birth (or long-form birth certificate); and contemporaneous birth announcements published in Hawaii newspapers. Polls conducted in 2010 suggested that at least one quarter of adult Americans said that they doubted Obama's U.S. birth, while a May 2011 Gallup poll found that 13% of American adults (23% of Republicans) continued to express such doubts.